I don't know, lately I have been daydreaming of one RB that I would consider in place of Bell.

Hear me out, there is really only one RB worth a damn in free agency, Carlos Hyde. He is big, 6'0 230-235 pounds and has a very deceptive running style, many might think he is this bruising, punishing style of RB but he also has deceptive speed and breaks off many long runs over 20+ yards. He had 6 runs over 20+ yards, Bell had just 3 this past season, and Hyde had one run over 40+ yards (a 61 yard run). He has always played behind a crappy O-line, with poor QB play and he might really do well in Pittsburgh. Hyde had 59 receptions last season. Yes, he had probably more drops than Bell but it was also really the first season that they really involved him heavily in the passing game. He also would really need to improve his pass protection, but James Saxon could whip him into shape.

He will turn 28 in September.

So, do you give Bell that franchise number of $14.5 million and watch him play that out and leave for the 2019 season?

Or do you just talk to Hyde and say hey how would you like to be the new starting RB for the Super Bowl contending Pittsburgh Steelers? How would you like to run behind an offensive line composed of Pro Bowlers? How would you like to play with a HOF QB in Big Ben?

Wouldn't it be better to pursue Hyde and give him a 4 year $24 million contract that pays him an average of $6 million a year? Wouldn't it be better to have a RB that will be here for the next 3 years with Ben? They can still draft a RB in round 5 to return kicks and be a complementary 3rd down back, they still have Connor. A trio of Carlos Hyde, James Connor and a 5th round rookie RB would be a nice option.

_________________TJ Watt, the next Brian Urlacher for the new Pittsburgh Steeler 4-3 defense for 2018?

A great replacement at a reasonable cost. There are several RB's in FA that would fit the bill behind the Steelers top 5 OLine. Hyde is certainly one of them. I agree Scunge. To name a few... Isaiah Crowell, Dion Lewis, Jerick McKinnon, Damien Williams are all in the 25-27 year old RB's range. Young, productive and capable. Not to mention what's in the draft this year.

Well, to me, Hyde is the only option. He has star potential in our offense, running behind our O-line and the rest of the supporting cast. The other free agent RBs are just pretenders to me, they have too many warts, Hyde has the goods, had the talent and the production, the past two seasons he has combined for over 1900+ yards rushing, 14 rushing TDs, and also had 86 receptions and another 3 TDs.

He could be a 3 down back in our offense, some of the other FA RBs have holes in their game, can't do it all, Hyde can.

Anyway, he is the one player that I would consider. Go to Bell and say hey, this is our final offer and then if he turns up his nose you go to Carlos Hyde and say hey, here is a 4 year $24-28 million deal. Handle it like the Wallace/Brown thing again, sort of. He is a former Ohio State Buckeye, we have some of his former teammates on the team, maybe they can put in a good word, convince him, also maybe he might like to be closer to home, a Cincy native, etc.

That 14.5 million franchise number is just crazy when you stop and consider that could easily pay for half the cost of a contract to a player like Carlos Hyde.

_________________TJ Watt, the next Brian Urlacher for the new Pittsburgh Steeler 4-3 defense for 2018?

Jerick McKinnon would be a great pick up if the goal is to have an offense that looked like the ones in the SB. He's a guy that you could give 15 touches a game to. I'd imagine you could get him for 4M or less per season. He has home run ability.

McKinnon, Conner, and, say, a 3rd round RB would give you a nice stable of backs.

I really like the idea of Hyde, with Conner backing up and maybe pick-up a specialist or 3rd down guy in FA or the draft.

But will Hyde actually make it to FA? the 49ers have $116M in cap space currently. Which ALSO makes an interesting trading partner for Bell - we tag and trade Bell, and they sign Hyde to a long-term deal and eat additional cap on him to actually trade some cap dollars to PIT (again, too cutting edge for Colbert).

Hyde is probably just not worth tagging for SF, but they figure to easily match anything reasonable Hyde gets. The only exception would be they could go after Bell in a big way. And I bet they would love to bring in a guy like Bell with Garappalo.

totally agree. It is better for the team to let Bell walk then to pay him more than $10M per year.

But ONLY if you can use that money for an impact player on defense. Otherwise why are you making your team worse to save some money....for what?

The cap is projected to increase another $7-$10M this year. I don't think there are going to be many (if any) studs available on defense - the guys who are worth the big bucks are getting resigned.....the rest usually have some major issues or are already declining in a significant way.